Alibaba’s ‘new retail’ plan gets teeth

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is penetrating deeper into the offline sector to build its “new retail” model. It spent an estimated but unspecified amount of over HK$630 million ($80.88 million) for an 18 percent stake in Hong Kong-listed Lianhua Supermarket Holdings Co Ltd on Friday. Post the deal, which was announced by Lianhua, Alibaba…